Brutal Prison Attack: Ministry of Justice Slapped with £85k Payout
Gary Vinter’s savage assault left inmate with fractured skull
Lee Newell, 52, suffered a fractured skull and severe brain injury after being brutally attacked by double killer Gary Vinter at HMP Woodhill, Milton Keynes in November 2014. Newell claimed the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) failed to protect him from the infamous prisoner’s violent rampage.
High Court slams MoJ for negligence
High Court judge Peter Marquand ruled that the MoJ breached its duty to keep Newell safe. Evidence revealed how Vinter punched Newell to the ground, then repeatedly kicked and punched his head in a vicious attack intended to force a prison move.
Newell’s lawyer, Nick Armstrong, described Vinter as having “a particular habit of attacking other prisoners to get what he wanted.” Vinter’s violent history is notorious — in 2011, he stabbed Roy Whiting, the killer of schoolgirl Sarah Payne, with a sharpened toilet brush handle.
Warnings ignored despite Vinter’s threats
Before the assault, Vinter repeatedly threatened prison staff, warning an officer: “If you tell me I can’t move prisons, you’d better do it from behind a shield.” But the MoJ defended its record, with lawyer Jack Holborn saying Vinter’s threats were “of a general nature” and “not uncommon among violent prisoners.”
Holborn added that both Newell and Vinter were “dangerous and violent men,” but the MoJ could not keep them “permanently locked up and segregated.”
Prison violence with deadly pasts
- Newell is serving a whole-life term for murdering child killer Subhan Anwar in 2013, committed while already serving life for a 1988 murder.
- Vinter was jailed in 1996 for killing a colleague and handed a whole-life tariff for murdering his estranged wife in 2008.
- He later received a third life sentence for attempted murder following the attack on Newell.
Judge Marquand ruled that the MoJ should have taken steps to separate Vinter from other inmates long before the attack. He awarded Newell £85,000 in damages plus £7,000 interest for the Ministry’s failure to keep him safe.
